If minimum wage goes up to $9.50 ...

[coppercountryflowers]

Obama suggested minimum wage should go up to $9.50 by the year 2011.... how will this affect your business?

I think a lot of the smaller mom and pop shops are going to have a hard time surviving when this happens.

Just curious how you think this will affect your own shop.

 

[Connie]

I remember one of my professors pointing out that when the minimum wage goes up, the price of everything goes up also. The poor stay poorer, as the saying goes.

 

[lori042499]

Obama suggested minimum wage should go up to $9.50 by the year 2011.... how will this affect your business?

I think a lot of the smaller mom and pop shops are going to have a hard time surviving when this happens.

Just curious how you think this will affect your own shop.

Our prices will need to go up...our formulas will need to change...like food has gone up double in the past 10 years, our prices will need to go up. we will have to change the way we see our businesses and so will people...We will have to cut unneccessary wages and do more work ourselves...I personally think minimum wage is way off now...I really don''t know how anyone lives on it...

 

[Joe Mioux]

Obama suggested minimum wage should go up to $9.50 by the year 2011.... how will this affect your business?

I think a lot of the smaller mom and pop shops are going to have a hard time surviving when this happens.

Just curious how you think this will affect your own shop.

If Obama takes his cue from Democrat politics here in Illinois, the minimum wage will get tied to inflation.

So far Gov Blago. has not gotten the Dem controlled state House and Senate to go along with this insane idea, but...............

To answer your question, I will fire one or two people or put a couple to part time.

That is the problem with a politician who has no business background, they don't know how their policies impact small businesses.

Hillary once said, way back in 1993, "I can't be responsible for every under capitalized business in this country." She was referencing her failed Health Care Insurance program that would have hurt and cause some businesses to collapse.

Liberal ideas rarely work to the betterment of business.

joe

 

[BOSS]

To answer the original question, it won't make any difference in my store, I only have one employee below the $9.50 mark, and he *might* deserve the raise...the jury's still out on that one...

 

[Luc]

Here in Canada, they have started this process several years back. It should be over $10.00 in a few years.
It mean, less hours for some....
It means lay off for others...
It means more hours for the owner to work instead of brining someone in.
It means businesses will have more part time people instead of full time and offer benefits.
It means instead of 20 25% labor it goes up to 30% or more....
It means they want to cut welfare cost making it look like it is worth to go to work....
It mean mom and pop will suffer again another blow.
It mean more business will hurt and close.
Luc

 

[ivygreen]

Just curious to how many of us are working for or would work for $9.50 an hour?

 

[Victoria]

Just curious to how many of us are working for or would work for $9.50 an hour?

I couldn't do much more than barely survive. Our current minimum wage is $8.75/hour... not a living wage by any means.

V

 

[shannonlovesflowers]

To answer the original question, it won't make any difference in my store, I only have one employee below the $9.50 mark, and he *might* deserve the raise...the jury's still out on that one...

That's awesome Boss!
I will really never understand how anyone could live off minimum wage.

I will admit when I was younger and pretty much only cared about going out or to the movies, had an apartment that the rent was under $300/mo blah blah blah, it was easier. Plus gentleman callers liked to take me out and buy me stuff, so that helped too.

Now I pay my own way!!! Me and Hubby are a team, but the team couldn't live on minimum wage. Maybe I'm just dumb, but when people make more don't they spend more?

 

[Victoria]

At $8.75/hour for a 40 hour week, the gross earnings is $350.00/wk. After taxes it works out to about $290.00/wk. That doesn't keep a roof over one's head in this day and age.

V

 

[Joe Mioux]

Another liberal mantra.

Who ever said a person should live on a minimum wage?

It is a starting point, not a career wage.

there should not be any minimum wage, it is just an artificial pay floor that only causes supply and demand labor problems.

joe

 

[BOSS]

It is a starting point, not a career wage.

there should not be any minimum wage, it is just an artificial pay floor that only causes supply and demand labor problems.

joe

All true!!!

Thing is in today's economy people can not live on much less than $15.00, but businesses can't afford much more than $10.00 (plus associated taxes)... vicious cycle.

 

[Knife's Wife]

I was taught that minimum wage was not meant for me to support myself for life or that of a family. Rather a stepping stone, a foot in the door to proving myself as being worthy of more. Who in their right mind would teach a kid that minimum wage is for living on. The raising of minimum wage will not only raise the prices of product, but handout of the government to be fair. It will indeed keep the poor, poor.

There are many employees who walk through doors all over the country who are not even worthy of the current minimum wage, but by doing so cost the employer valuable time, resources and money that could have been spent keeping those employees who are worthy of their pay.

I would work for $9.50 per hour if that was all that was available to me. Would I survive? Yes, because I was taught to live financially conservative. It can be done!

Joan

 

[prestonway]

Another liberal mantra.

Who ever said a person should live on a minimum wage?

It is a starting point, not a career wage.

there should not be any minimum wage, it is just an artificial pay floor that only causes supply and demand labor problems.

joe

Of course the minimum wage does NOT only affect the minimum wage worker.

The person who WAS getting $9.50 suddenly wants $10.50...and so on up the ladder.

Since there is only so much money in the small business labor budget, something has to give.

It's usually the least skilled worker that gets fired...defeating the entire purpose of the "new policy".

 

[Carol Bice]

There are exception to everything....but, the people I see around here that work for minimum wages are students, partimers, mentally challenged people, illegals and really inept and lazy people and a few more. Sure, different areas have different situations.

So many of the minimum wage people are not even worth minimum wage. Of course, there are some that actually should make more. Some are overpaid at minimum because the work they are producing is so substandard and slow.

If minimum wage is raised, then everything else will be raised accordingly and those workers will be back at square one.

The illegals that make minimum wage are getting free health care, so, that is a biggie that is not counted as their wages. I know so much of this depends on the economic situation in the areas.

This sounds ugly, but, it is not meant to be that way. It is just an observation.

Carol Bice

 

[Joe Mioux]

All true!!!

Thing is in today's economy people can not live on much less than $15.00, but businesses can't afford much more than $10.00 (plus associated taxes)... vicious cycle.

That is why our government provides Food Stamps, has the WIC program, subsidized housing, and a whole host of other supportive tax payer funded assistance.

I once read or heard, that in New York City an unemployed person could receive over $36,000 in govt subsidies.

joe

 

[LJVF]

Another liberal mantra.

Who ever said a person should live on a minimum wage?

It is a starting point, not a career wage.

there should not be any minimum wage, it is just an artificial pay floor that only causes supply and demand labor problems.

joe

I agree.

This is an entry level wage for what's usually a non-skilled job. Can you imagine what would happen to small business if the minimum wage were raised to the so-called rate of "what people could live on"? I say develop some skills or trade, prove your worth and work your way up.

Most of my skilled employees are currently earning over $9.50 per hour right now. But setting the bottom too high too quick will throw the scale way off kilter. There will be less wage disparity between skilled and non-skilled which could create some issues. I definitely can't afford to raise everyone accordingly.

 

[Victoria]

Well Joe.... where I work, there are MANY people scratching by on miniumum wage. Hardly a mantra, rather a fact of their lives... and mine once.

V

 

[Joe Mioux]

Well Joe.... where I work, there are MANY people scratching by on miniumum wage. Hardly a mantra, rather a fact of their lives... and mine once.

V

What is minimum wage in CA and what other social programs does your govt offer? I know healthcare is covered. Do you have any idea how much that one benefit adds back to an individuals compensation?

 

[Kristine]

Just curious to how many of us are working for or would work for $9.50 an hour?

I know of several college educated professionals who have been outsourced out of a good paying job that would welcome a job paying $9.50 an hour.

trouble is, no one will hire a college educated professional looking to keep the roof over their head because the employer knows the $9.50 job is a stop gap measure till they find something better.

I just love our Michigan economy!